1. Field of the Invention
The Present Invention relates generally to a connector and, more particularly, to a connector in which a plug connected to a cable is mounted on a housing by means of an extendible lock member and provided with a bent portion so that the plug can be reduced in its overall size and that the connection between the plug and the connector can be maintained.
2. Description of the Related ART
One way in which a conventional electronic device or apparatus can realize both a decrease in the overall size of a casing thereof and an increase in the overall size of a display screen thereof is to configure the casing to be collapsible. In such a case, a flexible printed circuit and conductive wires may be arranged so as to pass through an inside of a hinge portion that allows one casing to be pivotably connected with the other casing so that signals can be transmitted through parallel transmission.
Although signal transmission speed must necessarily increase in response to an increase in image resolution, since there is a limit in increasing the inside dimension of the hinge portion, it is practically impossible to arrange a conductive wire having a large width or diameter. In addition, in order to counter against electromagnetic interference (EMI) is taken, the conductive wire will be required to become larger in width or diameter. In this regard, a method of optical transmission has been alternatively studied which is capable of transmitting a large amount of signals through serial transmission and is an excellent EMI countermeasure. One example of such a method can be found in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-330260.
FIG. 12 is an exploded view of a conventional optical connector, such as may be found in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application. As shown in FIG. 12, an optical fiber 901 is attached at a distal end thereof to an optical connector body 920. Moreover, a photoelectric conversion module 850, mounted on a circuit board 811, is a chip module mounting thereon an optical semiconductor device 871, which may be a light emitting or receiving element. Furthermore, the circuit board 811 is provided with slit-shaped latching openings 815 at both sides of the photoelectric conversion module 850. In addition, a pair of positioning pins 931 is formed on a lower surface of the optical connector body 920, and a pair of pin holes 831 is formed on an upper surface of the photoelectric conversion module 850 so that the positioning pins 931 may be inserted into the pin holes 831.
When the optical connector body 920 is connected to the photoelectric conversion module 850, the optical connector body 920 is placed on the photoelectric conversion module 850 so that the respective positioning pins 931 are inserted into corresponding pin holes 831. Subsequently, a connector fixing member 821 is attached to the circuit board 811 from above so that the optical connector body 920 is fixed. The connector fixing member 821 is provided with elastic latching pieces 825 that extend downward from both ends of a top plate thereof and is further provided with latching projections 825a formed at a lower end of each of the elastic latching pieces 825. Then, the lower ends of the elastic latching pieces 825 are inserted into the latching openings 815 of the circuit board 811 in a state where the connector fixing member 821 is positioned above and straddles over the optical connector body 920. Thus, the latching projections 825a of the elastic latching pieces 825 are latched to the circuit board 811, and thus the optical connector body 920 is connected to the photoelectric conversion module 850.
However, according to the conventional optical connector, since the optical connector body 920 is configured to be locked when the latching projections 825a of the elastic latching pieces 825 are latched thereto, it is practically impossible to realize both easy unlocking properties and reliable locking properties.
When attachment and removal of the optical connector body 920 to and from the photoelectric conversion module 850 is frequently repeated, it is requested to improve unlocking properties so that the lock state of the optical connector body 920 by the connector fixing member 821 can be easily released. However, when a spring force exerted by the elastic latching pieces 825 is decreased in order to improve the unlocking properties, the latching projections 825a are easily released from the latched state and thus are unnecessarily unlocked, thereby deteriorating the lock reliability. On the other hand, when the spring force exerted by the elastic latching pieces 825 is increased in order to improve the lock reliability, the latching projections 825a become hard to be released from the latched state and it becomes difficult to perform an unlocking operation, thereby deteriorating the unlocking properties. Moreover, when the attachment and removal of the connector fixing member 821 is repeated in a state where the spring force exerted by the elastic latching pieces 825 is increased, the latching projections 825a and the latching openings 815 of the circuit board 811 are extensively worn away.